Tiny dovekies recuperating in Barnstable

BARNSTABLE — Along with power outages and snow, this weekend's storm brought some unexpected visitors to Cape Cod who, with luck and some tender care, will soon be able to leave on their own.

KAREN JEFFREY

BARNSTABLE — Along with power outages and snow, this weekend's storm brought some unexpected visitors to Cape Cod who, with luck and some tender care, will soon be able to leave on their own.

More than two dozen dovekies — small, ocean-going birds that breed in the Arctic — have been found stranded as much as two miles inland.

Without human assistance they cannot return home. They are also at risk of being little more than "popcorn for crows and seagulls," said E. Vernon Laux, Nantucket naturalist and a birding columnist for the Cape Cod Times.

Ten of these black and white birds that resemble rotund, miniature penguins, are being cared for at the Cape Wildlife Center in Barnstable, which is operated by the Humane Society of the United States.

Another 10, as of the Tuesday morning count, are being looked after at the Wild Care Inc., an independent, wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center in Eastham.

In both instances, the little birds, about the size of doves, arrived tired, hungry and dehydrated.

Some have been found by Cape residents familiar with the creatures, others have been brought in by those who are encountering this member of the auk family (think puffin) for the first time.

"Our first call came around 12:30 (p.m.) Monday from a couple in Sandwich who said they found a little bird that looked like a baby penguin in their backyard," said Theresa Barbo, director of the Cape Wildlife Center.

"The animal control officer brought it in for us to check out. The next call came in about half an hour later from someone who found a dovekie in the back of a truck in Dennis," she said.

It is a similar story on the Lower Cape, said Betsey Bradford, wildlife rehabilitator at Wild Care Inc.

"We had a few come in from the storm on the 20th," Bradford said. "We were able to get them back in shape and release them. Monday, we had more come in.

"People are picking them up in their yards, in the woods. Wherever they find them, sometimes miles inland," she said.

It is not wholly unusual for dovekies to be blown ashore during a bad storm, particularly on Cape Cod, said Dr. Roberto Aguilar, veterinarian at the humane society in Barnstable, where the dovekies are recuperating in a small wading pool.

In recent years there have been reports of dovekies being found in such landlocked places as Newton. And a storm in the early 1930s dropped hundreds and hundreds of the birds into New York City in what became known as a "rain of dovekies."

Nowadays, the phenomenon of dovekies being blown ashore is referred to as a wreck, Laux said.

"So this week we've had a wreck of dovekies on the Cape," he said.

Laux said old time Cape Codders referred to dovekies as "pine knots." There are mentions in old birding books of this nickname as well as "knotties" — a reference to the dovekies' hardiness.

Dovekies breed along Arctic coasts and hatch in nests that cling precariously to the sides of cliffs, Aguilar said.

Once they leave the nest, the birds spend most of their lives on the open seas. And though their physique — short stubby wings and legs set at the back of the body — is perfect for life on the sea, on shore it doesn't work so well.

"They just can't walk. Their webbed feet are wrong for land. Their legs are in the wrong place. And they can't get up enough speed on ground to lift off and fly," Barbo said.

Nor can they feed.

At the Barnstable center, Heather Fone, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, feeds the small birds a slurry — a balanced mixture of fluids meant to rehydrate them and provide a fast source of energy, Barbo said.

In Eastham, they had been using fish caught in traps set in the marshes, but that source of shiners is running dry, Bradford said.

"We're going to have to look for off-Cape sources."

The goal is to return the birds to the wild as soon as possible.

"Once they are rehydrated and fed, once the wind dies down, we'll take them to the shore and release them," Bradford said. "They don't need to be taken far. Get them to the water and they set their sights on home."

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